Teams & Riders Mark Cavendish Discussion Thread

[canarydan23]

Careful. You're moving into dangerous territory there!
King Boonen does no appreciate the Cycling News Innuendo Squad.

I would expect nothing less from the Cavendish is Undeniably Not That Superb group. They have a fitting abbreviation, those guys.

 

[DanielSong39]

FYI, I bet on Sagan to win green jersey at +430. Hoping that Cavendish gets over the mountains but that's not a done deal, even with his sensational form.

Cavendish vs. Froome would be an interesting GC matchup. Right now Cavendish has a 6 minute advantage.

 

[KZD]

I am starting to think that he might beat or at least equal Merckx's record. And the green jersey looks likely too.

 

[Vino's Mum]

Hoping that Cavendish gets over the mountains but that's not a done deal, even with his sensational form.

I was wondering about this earlier, so looked up the last time Cavendish finished a GT...

That’d be the 2015 Tour, so it’ll be some effort for him to make it to Paris.

 

[jmdirt]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1410681237363175427

Hopefully swingtp doesn't read this because it doesn't fit with his "I'm done with dirty Cav" tantrum!

 

[PremierAndrew]

You mention that Cav competed against Kittel and Greipel, but that was only part of his career.

Cav took 20 wins in 4 Tours(08-11), only Greipel was present in one of those, 2011.
Over the next 6 Tours with Greipel/Kittel, Cav had 10 wins. Serious, serious difference there. In fact if you go from 12-17 Kittel has the best record with 14 wins and Cav and Greipel are level on 10. In fact Kittel has a better strike rate at the Tour than Cavendish if you average it out over Tour appearences,

As I keep pointing out, that 08-11 was one of the worst eras of sprinters ever.....well until the current field in this years Tour and that skewers things heavily in favour of Cav.

Kittel and Greipel always had Cav and each other to go against. What other major sprinter was around in 08-11???

Why aren't kittel and greipel beating cav at the tour right now??

 

[will-10]

Sooo to summarise, there was a weak sprinter field from Chateauroux 2008 onwards, except for that bit in the middle from '17 to '20 when Cav didn't win any Tour stages?

 

[PremierAndrew]

If you add up Cipollini's, McEwen's and Zabel's TdF wins, you just about reach Cavendish (all 3 of them have 12 wins, funnily). He won so much he sucked the life out of his competition, that's why his opponents have mediocre palmares.

Goss could easily have been a 10-time GT stage winner without Cav there

 

[Leinster]

I was wondering about this earlier, so looked up the last time Cavendish finished a GT...

That’d be the 2015 Tour, so it’ll be some effort for him to make it to Paris.

In fairness, or the 3 Tours he's started since, he pulled out in 2016 (after winning 4 stages) to focus on the track for the Olympics, he crashed out in 2017, and in 2018 he was OTL on the same day as Kittel, and the day before Greipel, Gaviria, Groenewegen and Rick Zabel all DNF'd, so it was a pretty rough trip through the Alps for the sprinters all round that year.

 

[Leinster]

Goss could easily have been a 10-time GT stage winner without Cav there

Tyler Farrar has 5 2nd places at the Tour. 4 behind Cav, and 1 behind Armstrong/Contador's Astana in the TTT.

 

[PremierAndrew]

Tyler Farrar has 5 2nd places at the Tour. 4 behind Cav, and 1 behind Armstrong/Contador's Astana in the TTT.

But also the motivation and confidence that come with winning, if 5 of those 2nd places were wins instead, I'd be willing to bet a lot more of his 3rd,4th etc would also be wins

 

[Swingtop]

Hopefully swingtp doesn't read this because it doesn't fit with his "I'm done with dirty Cav" tantrum!

I guess you completely missed Philipsen's arm movement at the finish line or missed the fact that Philipsen didn't do a post-race interview. The guy was furious, zero doubt. This is just their PR manager making things right. That fools most, of course.

 

[Netserk]

Sooo to summarise, there was a weak sprinter field from Chateauroux 2008 onwards, except for that bit in the middle from '17 to '20 when Cav didn't win any Tour stages?

2008-2010 was very weak, likewise this year (especially as long as Merlier doesn't sprint against Cav). In 2011/2012, he had to compete with Greipel, and from 2013-2017 he had to face his strongest competition.

He would obviously still win a lot even against a stacked field (like in 2019) as we saw in 2016, but he would definitely win less.

 

[jmdirt]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1410681237363175427

JP's line wasn't exactly perfect either which made them almost come together. TM was trying really hard to disrupt Cav.

 

[Eli]

THE MANX MISSILE IS BACK BABYYYYYY!

 

[SHAD0W93]

Now can he get over the hills and mountains and maintain his sprinting shape.

 

[canarydan23]

I guess you completely missed Philipsen's arm movement at the finish line or missed the fact that Philipsen didn't do a post-race interview. The guy was furious, zero doubt. This is just their PR manager making things right. That fools most, of course.

You're pretty close to getting it.

If he had been treated unfairly by Cav, then a PR manager wouldn't be scrabbling around trying to save face would he? It's not bad PR to protest a wrong. It is bad PR to moan when nothing really happened. Hence why, as you said, the PR manager was "making things right".

 

[RedheadDane]

I guess you completely missed Philipsen's arm movement at the finish line or missed the fact that Philipsen didn't do a post-race interview. The guy was furious, zero doubt. This is just their PR manager making things right. That fools most, of course.

The arm movement was the immediate reaction, made when the pulse was still high, and the adrenalin flowing.

 

[Red Rick]

Now can he get over the hills and mountains and maintain his sprinting shape.

He can survive the mountains while other sprinters will drop, enabling an even weaker sprinting field

 

[tobydawq]

As Deceuninck write on Twitter, yesterday Cavendish became the first rider ever to win multiple stages in eight editions of the Tour.

That is something.

 

[Swingtop]

JP's line wasn't exactly perfect either which made them almost come together. TM was trying really hard to disrupt Cav.

From behind, lol.

The arm movement was the immediate reaction, made when the pulse was still high, and the adrenalin flowing.

Not doing the post-race interview shows that Philipsen took this up really high. All the scripted PR make-up, kiss up afterwards, is just laughable. Alpecin know they are a small Conti team, they don't want any enemies, especially not in DCQ and against a popular guy like Cav. Weak, is what it really is though. Cav's 1.5+ meter deviation would warrant at least an official question.

 

[Red Rick]

I watched it again. The only reason it looks suspicious is because Merlier, deliberate or not, is trying to hinder Cavendish

 

[RedheadDane]

Not doing the post-race interview shows that Philipsen took this up really high. All the scripted PR make-up, kiss up afterwards, is just laughable. Alpecin know they are a small Conti team, they don't want any enemies, especially not in DCQ and against a popular guy like Cav. Weak, is what it really is though. Cav's 1.5+ meter deviation would warrant at least an official question.

Post-race interviews tend to happen within an hour of finishing, so not exactly a lot of time to calm down from the initial reaction of anger. Once he had a chance to calm down, he probably realised that it was nothing.

 

[spalco]

I guess you completely missed Philipsen's arm movement at the finish line or missed the fact that Philipsen didn't do a post-race interview. The guy was furious, zero doubt. This is just their PR manager making things right. That fools most, of course.

He may have been angry at the finish line, but emotions coming from race adrenaline can't always be taken seriously. It's possible he watched it again and was ok with it.

Even as a spectator (and it goes 10x more for the athletes themselves), who hasn't said some stupid things in the first reaction after an important win/loss of a team/person you care about?

 

[Armchair cyclist]

Has there been any public comment from Merckx about his record being under threat? Or is it a fairly irrelevant stat among so many other records to him?